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Help:Basic Formatting
SmallBusiness.com is run on the open source wiki software plaform, MediaWiki -- the same system that powers [Wikipedia] and many other major wiki sites.
The software is extremely powerful for managing a wiki, but sometimes, it can be a little confusing for new users who would like to edit a page. MediaWiki uses as special type of code called Wiki Markup, a code language that is designed to be simple for people to use. Unfortunately, when programmers think something is simple, they forget that most of us don't use language code in our daily lives. Rather, we are more used to getting a page of text to do what we want it to do because modern software has an interface called "what you see is what you get" that hides the code from us.
So, we've included this SmallBusiness.com basic formatting guide. You may want to bookmark this page or print it out the first time you attempt to edit a SmallBusiness.com page.
Also, remember: You have to be registered and logged in to edit a page on SmallBusiness.com
(Please scroll to the bottom for credits.)
If you need help learning how to create or edit an entry
This page assumes you know how to create and edit a page on SmallBusiness.com. For more information on how to get started, go to: How to create and edit a SmallBusiness.com entry
Basic Formatting Help
Bold, Italics, New Lines, Comments
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Italicize text: put 2 apostrophes on each side. Bold text: 3 apostrophes. Bold and italicized: 5 apostrophes.
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''Italicize text: put 2 apostrophes on each side.'' '''Bold text: 3 apostrophes.''' '''''Bold and italicized: 5 apostrophes.''''' (4 apostrophes ''''doesn't do much''''.) |
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Hitting enter/return key once has no effect on the layout. Hitting enter/return twice gives an empty line, and starts a new paragraph. Note: When used in a [[#Sections, Headings, and Lists|list]], enter/return once does affect the layout. |
Hitting enter/return key once has no effect on the layout. Hitting enter/return twice gives an empty line, and starts a new paragraph. ''Note: When used in a [[#Sections, Headings and Lists|list]], enter/return once does affect the layout.'' |
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You can break |
You can break <br> lines without a new paragraph with the "br" tag. Please use this sparingly, if ever. |
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If you need to leave comments for other editors that won't show up in an article, you can use "<" followed by an exclamation point and two hyphens "!--". Close the comment with two hyphens "--" and ">". |
If you need to leave comments for other editors that won't show up in an article, you can use "<" followed by an exclamation point and two hyphens "!--". <!--I was having difficulty demonstrating the tags without creating them, can someone perhaps improve on this if they know how to fix the tags?--> Close the comment with two hyphens "--" and ">". |
Links
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INTERNAL LINKS Internal link (a link within SmallBusiness.com): Marketing. Links Tricks
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INTERNAL LINKS Internal link (a link within SmallBusiness.com): [[Marketing]]. Links Tricks<br> *Typing after the link: [[Marketing]]'s *Formatting links: '''''[[Marketing]]'''''. *Capitalization matters, but only after the first letter: [[natural gas]] goes to the same place as [[Natural gas]]. *Make a link display text that's different from the link itself: [[Natural gas|Display text]].
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You can link to a page section (indicated by a second-level heading) by its title: |
You can link to a page section (indicated by a [[#Sections, Headings and Lists|second-level heading]]) by its title: [[Help:Basic Formatting#Signatures]]
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EXTERNAL LINKS Make an external (non-SmallBusiness.com) link: Title your external link: Google Make a blank external link: [1] |
EXTERNAL LINKS Make an external (non-SmallBusiness.com) link: http://www.nupedia.com Title your external link: [http://www.google.com Google] Make a blank external link: [http://www.google.com] |
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RED LINKS Non-page is red--a page that doesn't exist yet. You could create it by clicking on the link. |
RED LINKS [[Non-page]] is red--a page that doesn't exist yet. You could create it by clicking on the link.
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EMAIL LINKS Linking to an e-mail address: |
EMAIL LINKS Linking to an e-mail address: mailto:someone@domain.com or [mailto:someone@domain.com someone] |
Sections, Headings, and Lists
| What it looks like | What you type |
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Section headings
Tables of Contents are automatically generated by Wiki software when you use headings. Subsection
Using more equals signs creates a subsection. A smaller subsection
Don't skip heading levels (e.g. from two to four equals signs.) Start with 2 equals signs, not 1! Otherwise, you'll get H1 tags which should be reserved for page title. |
== Section headings == Tables of Contents are automatically generated by Wiki software when you use headings. === Subsection === Using more equals signs creates a subsection. ==== A smaller subsection ==== Don't skip heading levels (e.g. from two to four equals signs.) Start with 2 equals signs, not 1! Otherwise, you'll get H1 tags which should be reserved for page title. |
marks the end of the list.
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* ''Unordered lists'' are easy to do: ** Start every line with a star. *** More stars indicate a deeper level. *: Previous item continues. ** A new line * in a list marks the end of the list. * Of course you can start again. |
A new line marks the end of the list.
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# ''Numbered lists'' are: ## Very organized ## Easy to follow A new line marks the end of the list. # New numbering starts with 1. |
Signatures
| What it looks like | What you type |
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You should "sign" your comments on Discussion pages (but never on articles): |
You should "sign" your comments on Discussion pages (but never on articles): *Three tildes gives your signature: ~~~ *Four tildes give your signature plus date/time: ~~~~ *Five tildes gives the date/time alone: ~~~~~ |
Copy Click & Paste Pages
To assist you in creating specific types of entries, we are creating entries that have wikitext code you can copy and paste into a new entry. You can find links to them here:
<categorytree mode=all>Copy click & paste</categorytree>
Credits and Thanks
Thanks to Wikipedia and to WikiInvest for sharing their help section and policies with us, from which portions of this article are drawn. This help content is licensed under the GNU GFDL
